creating tasty vegan eats for under $10 a week

recipe rut

27 June 2011

When I cook bulk batches of things like beans and grains, I often find myself making the same thing over and over rather than combining them in new and interesting ways. For example, I made sweet ‘n’ spicy rice ‘n’ peas three times over the past week, and I’ve been eating lots of simple Asian-inspired salads of “sushi rice” (brown rice + rice vinegar + agave), edamame, corn, tamari, and chili-garlic sauce. I never get bored of eating the same thing for days on end — especially when it tastes this good! — but it does lead to admittedly boring blogging.

Yesterday I had some sort of 24-hour bug and couldn’t leave my bed or stomach anything more than chia oatmeal. (Fortunately — particularly when you’re having a hard time, um, keeping down liquids — that stuff’s super-hydrating: I’ve successfully made it with up to 3 cups of water per 1/2 cup oats.) Woke up at 5 pm and finally felt semi-hungry, but for some reason the only thing I could possibly imagine eating was a biscuit. I whipped up one of Chocolate Covered Katie’s single-lady dinner muffins, but used 2T oat flour + 1T oat bran and subbed tofutti cream cheese for the butter a la this recipe. Perfect.

Today, happily, I’m feeling human again: human enough to do some yard yoga, and to finally cook a real — and different — meal:

Sauteed garlic, asparagus, and bulgur, with basil and some white wine to deglaze (I’ve always wanted to do that!). Delicious.